With Barack Obama taking the time off to spend time with his family before the convention, one might have thought we wouldn’t be hearing much from the Obama team this week. Not so — the candidate may be taking a break, but his operation has decided to start the week with a new ad that’s bound to get some attention.<\/p>\n
To provide a little context, the McCain campaign decided in recent weeks to embrace the “celebrity” narrative with both arms. It’s the principal anti-Obama attack in every ad, every press release, every surrogate talking point, and every speech. The irony, of course, is that the attack is coming from John McCain, a bona fide political celebrity, as evidenced by his cameo in “Wedding Crashers,” his appearance on “24,” his stints on “Saturday Night Live,” and the fact that he’s been on “The Daily Show” more than any other guest ever.<\/p>\n
And with that in mind, this morning, the Obama campaign decided to turn the tables<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/embed><\/p>\nIt’s as if the Obama campaign is telling the McCain gang, “You want to play the ‘celebrity’ game? Great, let’s play the ‘celebrity’ game.”\n\nThe point of the 30-second ad, entitled “Embrace,” is to characterize McCain as “Washington’s biggest celebrity,” explaining the ways in which the DC establishment has (at times, literally) embraced McCain as its hero, and how McCain hugged the establishment right back.<\/p>\nOver footage of McCain as a guest on Letterman and SNL, the voice-over tells the audience, “For decades, he’s been Washington’s biggest celebrity.”<\/p>\nOver footage of McCain and George W. Bush repeatedly hugging, we hear, “And as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back.”<\/p>\nOver footage of McCain with a phalanx of well-dressed lobbyists, the announcer explains, “The lobbyists \u2013 running his low road campaign. The money \u2013 billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours.”<\/p>\nThen the ad lowers the boom: “Lurching to the right, then the left, the old Washington dance, whatever it takes. John McCain. A Washington celebrity playing the same old Washington games.”<\/p>\nThe spot does a lot in 30 seconds, connecting McCain to Bush, characterizing him as a flip-flopper, hitting McCain’s disconcerting ties to lobbyists, and, of course, putting all of this in the context of “Washington’s biggest celebrity.”<\/p>\nOne could probably make the case that the ad has a few too many messages, but overall, I thought it worked just fine, and the mocking tone sounded like the right pitch.<\/p>\nWhat’d you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Barack Obama taking the time off to spend time with his family before the convention, one might have thought we wouldn’t be hearing much from the Obama team this week. Not so — the candidate may be taking a break, but his operation has decided to start the week with a new ad that’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/embed><\/p>\nIt’s as if the Obama campaign is telling the McCain gang, “You want to play the ‘celebrity’ game? Great, let’s play the ‘celebrity’ game.”\n\nThe point of the 30-second ad, entitled “Embrace,” is to characterize McCain as “Washington’s biggest celebrity,” explaining the ways in which the DC establishment has (at times, literally) embraced McCain as its hero, and how McCain hugged the establishment right back.<\/p>\nOver footage of McCain as a guest on Letterman and SNL, the voice-over tells the audience, “For decades, he’s been Washington’s biggest celebrity.”<\/p>\nOver footage of McCain and George W. Bush repeatedly hugging, we hear, “And as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back.”<\/p>\nOver footage of McCain with a phalanx of well-dressed lobbyists, the announcer explains, “The lobbyists \u2013 running his low road campaign. The money \u2013 billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours.”<\/p>\nThen the ad lowers the boom: “Lurching to the right, then the left, the old Washington dance, whatever it takes. John McCain. A Washington celebrity playing the same old Washington games.”<\/p>\nThe spot does a lot in 30 seconds, connecting McCain to Bush, characterizing him as a flip-flopper, hitting McCain’s disconcerting ties to lobbyists, and, of course, putting all of this in the context of “Washington’s biggest celebrity.”<\/p>\nOne could probably make the case that the ad has a few too many messages, but overall, I thought it worked just fine, and the mocking tone sounded like the right pitch.<\/p>\nWhat’d you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Barack Obama taking the time off to spend time with his family before the convention, one might have thought we wouldn’t be hearing much from the Obama team this week. Not so — the candidate may be taking a break, but his operation has decided to start the week with a new ad that’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It’s as if the Obama campaign is telling the McCain gang, “You want to play the ‘celebrity’ game? Great, let’s play the ‘celebrity’ game.”\n\nThe point of the 30-second ad, entitled “Embrace,” is to characterize McCain as “Washington’s biggest celebrity,” explaining the ways in which the DC establishment has (at times, literally) embraced McCain as its hero, and how McCain hugged the establishment right back.<\/p>\n
Over footage of McCain as a guest on Letterman and SNL, the voice-over tells the audience, “For decades, he’s been Washington’s biggest celebrity.”<\/p>\n
Over footage of McCain and George W. Bush repeatedly hugging, we hear, “And as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back.”<\/p>\n
Over footage of McCain with a phalanx of well-dressed lobbyists, the announcer explains, “The lobbyists \u2013 running his low road campaign. The money \u2013 billions in tax breaks for oil and drug companies, but almost nothing for families like yours.”<\/p>\n
Then the ad lowers the boom: “Lurching to the right, then the left, the old Washington dance, whatever it takes. John McCain. A Washington celebrity playing the same old Washington games.”<\/p>\n
The spot does a lot in 30 seconds, connecting McCain to Bush, characterizing him as a flip-flopper, hitting McCain’s disconcerting ties to lobbyists, and, of course, putting all of this in the context of “Washington’s biggest celebrity.”<\/p>\n
One could probably make the case that the ad has a few too many messages, but overall, I thought it worked just fine, and the mocking tone sounded like the right pitch.<\/p>\n
What’d you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With Barack Obama taking the time off to spend time with his family before the convention, one might have thought we wouldn’t be hearing much from the Obama team this week. Not so — the candidate may be taking a break, but his operation has decided to start the week with a new ad that’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}